In 2005, The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment provided the first global assessment of the world’s ecosystems and ecosystem services. It concluded that recent trends in ecosystem change threatened human well-being due to declining ecosystem services, a bleak prophecy which has galvanized conservation organizations, ecologists, and economists to work towards rigorous valuations of ecosystem services at a spatial scale and with a resolution that can inform public policy. This book provides an intensive and technical analysis of ecosystem services to date. A key idea which guides the science is that the modelling and valuation approaches being developed should use data which are readily available around the world. In addition, the book documents a toolbox of ecosystem service mapping, modelling, and valuation models that both The Nature Conservancy and the World Wide Fund for Nature are beginning to apply around the world as they transform conservation from a biodiversity-only to a people and ecosystem services agenda. The book addresses land, freshwater, and marine systems at a variety of spatial scales, and includes discussion of how to treat both climate change and cultural values when examining tradeoffs among ecosystem services.

Monarch butterflies are highly sensitive to weather and climate, however, they also have a high capacity to adapt to longer term changes in climate. Explore this and other traits which make monarch butterflies vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

Polar bears rely almost entirely on the sea ice environment for traveling, hunting, mating and resting. Global warming and subsequent ice loss has been most pronounced in the Arctic, and this trend is projected to continue. Explore this and other traits which make polar bears vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

Asian elephant habitat is threatened by invasive plants such as Lantana sp., which may further thrive under changing climatic conditions. Explore this and other traits which make Asian elephants vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

This factsheet provides an overview of the Wildlife Crime Technology Project, which focuses on research, development and implementation of a suite of technologies to detect and deter poaching. This work was made possible through a Global Impact Award from Google in 2012.

Snow leopards might be resilient to many of the direct impacts of climate change, but face increasing pressure as humans and livestock shift their activities to higher elevations. Explore this and other traits which make snow leopards vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

Mountain gorillas live in a very restricted geographic range, and face pressure from surrounding human settlements who themselves are increasingly impacted by climate change. Explore this and other traits which make mountain gorillas vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

African elephants need up to 300 liters of water a day, just for drinking. Changing rainfall patterns in Africa and increased water scarcity pose a serious threat. Explore this and other traits which make African elephants vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

The Living Planet Report documents the state of the planet—including biodiversity, ecosystems, and demand on natural resources—and what this means for humans and wildlife. Published by WWF every two years, the report brings together a variety of research to provide a comprehensive view of the health of the earth.

The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program is the largest tropical forest conservation program in history: 128 million acres of the Brazilian Amazon have been protected through the program. An innovative financing approach has been used to ensure the land is permanently protected. Read more about this approach, called Project Finance for Permanence.

This report from WWF, funded by USAID, outlines how communities and ecosystems in Asia’s high mountains are vulnerable to climate change, from increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather to shifts in rainfall seasonality and increasing rates of glacial melt. Based on the latest science, the report summarizes existing adaptation efforts and provides recommendations for the future.

A series of maps and analysis from WWF, funded by USAID, explores the links between climate change, snow leopard habitat, and water provision across the 12 snow leopard range countries in Asia. The map book provides new insight into how the snow leopard range, which forms the headwaters of 20 major river basins, benefits downstream settlements, and how water provision is threatened by climate change.

In an effort to provide useful feedback on technology options and effective training approaches to the conservation community, WWF, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement and African Parks teamed up for a one-day informal review of promising technologies and possibilities for their wider implementation.

Following the 2012 Fuller Symposium, a full-day Wildlife Crime Experts Workshop was held at WWF US Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This Workshop focused on Rethinking Conventional Responses: Integrated Approaches in the Fight against Wildlife Crime.

The Global 200 identifies a set of the Earth's terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoregions that harbor exceptional biodiversity and are representative of its ecosystems. The Global 200 includes 238 ecoregions, comprised of 142 terrestrial, 53 freshwater, and 43 marine priority ecoregions.

HydroSHEDS provides hydrographic information via data layers to support watershed analyses, hydrological modeling, and freshwater conservation planning at a quality, resolution, and extent that had previously been unachievable in many parts of the world.

This guide is designed to help InVEST users select the most appropriate types of scenarios and methods when engaging stakeholders in the InVEST process. The guidance draws heavily on case studies where the provision of ecosystem services under alternative scenarios was evaluated using InVEST. The document highlights key issues and questions and provides tools, references and resources for readers who want to learn more.

This primer is a 12-page summary of Developing Scenarios to Assess Ecosystem Service Tradeoffs: Guidance and Case Studies for InVEST Users, which highlights case studies and guidance on developing scenario maps for the InVEST tool.

This booklet provides a summary of the ninth edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) documenting the “state of the planet.” Projections estimate that at current rates of consumption, by 2030 we will need the equivalent of two Earth’s to sustain our annual demands. This report suggests how this is happening, and how we can effectively manage, share, preserve and restore natural capital (biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services) through WWF’s “One Planet” perspective.

This WWF report brings together a variety of quantitative information and on the current state of global biodiversity and human impact on nature. Confronting the fact that people are using 50 percent more resources than the Earth can provide, this report summarizes this information and suggests changes in action to slow and reverse current trends.

This BioScience journal article presents the idea of Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW), a hierarchical global system of 12 realms, 62 provinces, and 232 ecoregions. MEOW offers a higher level of organization of marine life and is a critical planning and pattern analysis tool for conservation organizations like WWF.